Men's Basketball Upends Kansas State, 84-78

AMES, Iowa - Kansas State's Larry Reid made Iowa State work for this one.

The No. 15 Cyclones needed a career game from Jamaal Tinsley and another strong effort from Martin Rancik to withstand Reid's 30 points and beat the Wildcats 84-78 on Saturday.

Tinsley scored 21 of his 26 points in the second to match his career high and Rancik added 18 points, his third straight game in double figures, as Iowa State (19-3, 7-2 Big 12) ran its home winning streak to 32.

But it wasn't easy and that was mostly because of Reid, who had 22 points in the second half and made 7-of-9 3-point shots.

"He hit huge shot after huge shot," Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy said. "All he had to do was miss one and I think the game might have turned. But he kept answering.

"Ask Iowa what Reid was doing. He probably wants to play all his games against Iowas or in Iowa."

Reid scored 31 points in an upset of No. 18 Iowa in December. On Saturday, he was 10-for-16 from the field and made four 3-pointers in the final 4 minutes.

"He made some tough shots," Rancik said. "A lot of times, guys were right in his face and tried to contest the shot and he just knocked it down. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do about that."

Reid said he just took what the defense gave him.

"I knew they were going to play off and look for the drive and I was hot, so I kept shooting," he said. "After we were struggling so much, I wanted the ball in my hands."

But even with Reid's sensational shooting, Kansas State (8-11, 2-6) could not quite overcome Iowa State's early 13-point lead and lost for the fourth straight time and sixth time in seven games.

Four of the six losses were to ranked teams.

"The first half, I thought we took a couple of bad shots," Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge said. "That's something we emphasized coming into this game, not going down and taking a quick shot. We didn't want to get into a full-court game with them.

"In the second half, I thought we played well. I really did."

Kantrail Horton scored 12 points and Paul Shirley had 10 for Iowa State, which remained a half-game behind league-leading Kansas. Iowa State plays at Kansas on Monday night, and Shirley said the Cyclones need to pick it up.

"We'd probably get blown out if we play like this against Kansas," he said.

Iowa State led 36-24 at halftime and was up 39-26 after Jake Sullivan's 3-pointer early in the second half. But Reid and his teammates never let the Cyclones get comfortable.

The Wildcats would get the lead down to six or seven, Iowa State would get it back to 10 and then Kansas State would come right back again.

Iowa State led 67-57 after Tinsley's 3-pointer with 5 minutes left, but Travis Reynolds' three-point play and two 3-pointers by Reid left the Wildcats trailing.

Iowa State led 76-68 when Shirley scored on a putback with 1:58 left, but the Cyclones still weren't out of danger.

Reid's sixth 3-pointer drew Kansas State to 78-73, and Reynolds' basket inside left the Wildcats trailing 79-75 with 41.3 seconds to go. That's as close as it would get as three Kansas State starters fouled out in the final 39 seconds.

Tinsley hit two free throws for an 81-75 lead and Shirley made a big play for the Cyclones by drawing a charging foul on Terry with 25.3 seconds remaining. Iowa State then made enough free throws - 3-of-6 - to offset a final 3-pointer by Reid.

Reynolds scored 15 for Kansas State and Matt Siebrandt added 12.

Iowa State made 30-of-42 free throws, with Tinsley going 11-for-14. Kansas State, which shot 55.6 percent from the field, was 11-for-12 at the line.

"The free-throw line is usually an ally, but for us tonight it was the enemy," Wooldridge said. "Those guys are tough to guard on the dribble, maybe the best in the league."

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Players Mentioned

Kantrail Horton

Kantrail Horton

Martin Rancik

Martin Rancik

Paul Shirley

Paul Shirley

Jake Sullivan

Jake Sullivan

Jamaal Tinsley

Jamaal Tinsley

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